Son of Rachel Nickell FORGIVES killer Robert Napper

The son of a girl who was butchered in entrance of him by a paranoid schizophrenic has stated he forgives his mom’s killer.

In July 1992 Rachel Nickell was sexually assaulted and stabbed 49 occasions whereas out strolling together with her three-year-old son Alex Hanscombe and their rescue canine Molly.

The life Rachel and boyfriend André Hanscombe had created for themselves and their son was snatched away in a criminal offense that horrified the nation and Alex now says he has forgiven Robert Napper as he believes that ‘when you do not forgive the one who triggered you hurt, you then turn out to be that particular person in time.’

For 16 years father and son endured increasingly ache as police wrongly convicted Colin Employees of Rachel’s homicide.

Stagg spent a yr in jail for the crime whereas the true killer Napper lay unnoticed, happening to slaughter one other younger mom and her youngster.

Ten years in the past André sat reverse Napper who had been identified with paranoid schizophrenia. In courtroom the callous killer lastly confessed to the killing and was sentenced to be held in Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital, in Berkshire.

Each André and Alex now say they’ll forgive Napper and André even exhibits some sympathy in direction of him.

‘He was a poor mistreated youngster at a while, he was in care and foster properties, and a few individuals reply a method, and others reply in one other approach. That means that you can really feel some form of compassion.’

Trying again on the sentencing on the Previous Bailey, greater than ten years in the past André says that he does not really feel any rage in direction of Napper, even if he murdered his girlfriend in entrance of his son. Talking of the day in courtroom André says it was a ‘surreal’ and ‘intense expertise’.

Rachel Nickell (pictured above) has been strolling together with her son Alex and rescue canine Molly when she was killed

On that day within the Previous Bailey a decade in the past, André says he does not really feel any rage in direction of the person who murdered his girlfriend in entrance of his child son as he remembers seeing him in courtroom.

‘He did not have a look at me, he was most likely closely medicated. You possibly can see that this was very dysfunctional and distressed particular person.

André, who had been satisfied police had initially received the correct man, wrote Stagg a letter on his launch, apologising for believing that it was him who had murdered his girlfriend.

‘I used to be much more offended with Colin Stagg, it was much more uncooked then,’ he stated

André and Alex have had their ups and downs and had fights when Alex was an adolescent. The pair had moved to France after which Barcelona following the homicide and as Alex grew older he determined he would transfer again to London to review music.

He ultimately returned to Barcelona to reside together with his father, and the pair went travelling collectively for 4 years round Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, the place Alex studied yoga.

Robert Napper, the killer within the shadows

Robert Napper operated within the shadows, he would creep round within the suburbs and London’s commons.

The rape of a 31-year-old was the primary of his assaults and over a two month interval he attacked three different girls in South London, two of which have been 17-years-old.

On a Could Financial institution Vacation in 1992 Napper struck once more.

A younger girl generally known as C was pushing her two-year-old daughter in a buggy alongside the Inexperienced Chain Stroll in Eltham when Napper attacked.

She was grabbed from behind a ligature was positioned round her neck and he or she was pulled to the bottom by Napper.

She was raped and battered across the head, all in entrance of her youngster. The 22-year-old was left trying like a rag doll however years later was in a position to reveal the horror that had unfolded.

Seven weeks later Napper went on to sexually assault and homicide Rachel Nickell.

Following the homicide, police arrested the improper man and Napper was left to stroll the streets.

After years of investigations by police Napper was arrested in 1994.

Alex has taken his yoga teachings and has used them to assist him transfer on from the demise of his mom.

‘The character of human existence is from darkness to mild so, for me, my mom’s killer represents the darkness of human existence’, he stated.

Father and son now share an unbreakable bond and are engaged on a sequence of kids’s books based mostly on Alex’s childhood – with Molly the rescue canine taking a starring function – and self-help books based mostly on their trauma.

English literature scholar Rachel was simply 19 when she met semi-professional tennis participant André at a swimming pool the place she was working as a lifeguard and inside a couple of months she turned pregnant with Alex.

Reminiscing about Rachel, André nonetheless smiles on the considered her.

He stated: ‘Rachel has had an enormous affect on the best way issues turned out.

‘She made it clear that if something occurred to her that she wished me to carry Alex up in the easiest way doable.

‘She lavished a lot consideration on Alex within the three years they have been collectively, that she imbued him with that energy and independence.’

On Jul 15 1992, a passer-by discovered Alex clinging onto Rachel’s physique repeatedly crying ‘get up mummy’. In an autobiography about his experiences, penned 25 years after his mom’s demise, Alex is ready to recall that day with readability.

In lower than a break up second, life appeared to have come to a standstill. She was gone.’

Nonetheless he now says he ‘by no means thinks about it and as a substitute remembers the happiness they shared collectively in the course of the few years that they had.

‘I’ve recollections of that day, however fortuitously for me I even have recollections of us all being collectively, of loving and being cherished in return.’

For André he nonetheless remembers the worry he carried after the homicide, as police triggered one among its largest ever manhunts to search out the killer.

‘I used to be in worry of Alex´s life. I used to be the one witness to my mom’s homicide, and there was all the time the possibility the killer might come again,’ Alex says.

‘That was one thing the police have been whispering in my father’s ear on a regular basis. There was the likelihood he might discover us. I felt safer overseas.’

The ten-year anniversary of Napper’s confession now holds little significance for the pair.

Alex now says that ‘life had moved on’ earlier than Napper’s admission.

‘We needed to discover closure away from that,’ he says.

‘If an individual is discovered responsible and you then discover out it was one other … it is a rollercoaster.

‘We needed to reside with the actual fact this case may by no means be solved, we needed to discover a approach of discovering peace and stability.’

André additionally agreed that the chaotic nature of the case meant even figuring out Rachel’s actual killer has been caught for ten years supplies little closure.

He stated: ‘From day one, it was an open affair. There was no closure. There have been so a few years that glided by with no closure. Colin Stagg, Robert Napper… it was only a continuation of the identical outdated story.

‘I simply needed to do what I needed to do to verify Alex was okay, that was my primary duty.

‘Who it was who killed Rachel was one thing I might by no means really depend on as a result of errors had been made earlier than concerning the identification. The police swore it was Colin Stagg, after which you end up a decade later in the identical state of affairs.’

One different shut connection to Rachel was Labrador-greyhound cross canine Molly who André and Alex saved till she died on the age of 13, with Alex affectionately seeing the pup as his ‘little sister’.

‘Rachel used to say we have been her ‘little pack’,’ André smiles.

‘She actually instilled that in us.

‘She had such an infectious smile. She was an outdated soul, somebody you do not overlook.’